Why Combo Lists Are the Secret to Successful Task Management

A combo box (or list box) is a single-line editable text field with a collection of selectable items. Combo boxes start compactly and can expand to display the selections.

A combo list is a file that contains leaked usernames and passwords from various data breaches. Cybercriminals can use these lists to hack into accounts and steal valuable information.

They Help You Stay Organized

Combo boxes combine the benefits of a text box and a list box. They let users type or select an item using a graphical user interface while offering the flexibility of a list with sorting and filtering options.

They’re ideal for creating task lists, prioritizing tasks, and staying organized. They allow you to design and view multiple task lists simultaneously and provide an overview of all your responsibilities to see what needs to be done in a day or week.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything you must do at work or school. As you field requests for help and watch your to-do list grow, it’s easy to lose sight of what is most important or to let some items fall through the cracks. This is why using an external system for managing your tasks is important.

A simple way to do this is to use a combo list. This lets you pop up a form whenever someone enters something not in the combo’s list. This solution works well for simple lookups where the list is unlikely to change, such as a set of choices for a gender or age range. In other cases, let the user edit the list directly. This requires a little more programming, but it can be accomplished with a combo’s DblClick, a custom shortcut menu, or a form or query linked to the combo’s Row Source.

They Save You Time

In a world with more tasks than ever, it’s important to remember that our brains can only handle so much. This is why it’s essential to prioritize and work in batches to get the most out of your time. By focusing on one thing at a time, you can avoid the distractions of multitasking and increase your productivity.

A combo list is a file that contains leaked usernames/emails and passwords in a specific format. Cybercriminals usually assemble these files over multiple breaches and are sold or spread on the dark web. They are then used for brute force attacks, which are repeated attempts to log into a website or API using different usernames and passwords until they find a valid one.

These lists are valuable for criminals because people often reuse passwords across websites and services. The more credentials a hacker has, the more likely they will get a breached account to work on.

Businesses can minimize the threat from combo lists by using a combination of methods to protect data and assets. These include educating employees on the importance of multi-factor authentication, monitoring for password reuse and strength, and automatically checking against known breached passwords (like those found in the Anti-Public Combo List). A comprehensive approach includes all of these tools, plus providing a secure password manager like Scirge to ensure that all corporate accounts are protected.

They Help You Avoid Mistakes

A combo box is a control that provides the flexibility of a text box with a convenient list of possible choices to help users select a value. It’s a good choice when you need to allow values that aren’t in your default list, such as free-form text fields or for situations where you want to encourage users to review and invite change.

When you use a combo to set the values of a bound field, you must ensure that the current value in the area is valid before you save it. 

As you might expect, cybercriminals like combo lists. A combo list is a collection of compromised usernames/emails and passwords that cybercriminals use to try to brute-force their way into accounts on websites and applications. Because people reuse passwords between different sites, combo lists are more valuable to criminals than individual usernames or passwords.

One of the most common ways to check for a value in a combo is by using the Not In List event of the control, which is only suitable for some cases. It’s fine for a combo box that only contains a single item, but it’s not a good solution when the combo is on a bound field in a table because Access won’t detect that the new value doesn’t exist in the current list (the value in the row source). 

They Are Easy to Access

Combo lists are a great way for users to select a single value from multiple options. They’re especially useful when the values you display can’t be adequately represented in a single line of text, such as street addresses or city names. However, better solutions exist for selecting multiple items expressed in various lines of text, such as an artist’s name and album title. You’ll want to use a list or grid view instead of a combo box for those cases.

One of the biggest problems with combo lists is that they can make it easier for cybercriminals to steal people’s identities. For example, if someone reuses the same password on several websites, attackers can easily access the person’s account with leaked combination lists. According to research, this makes it easier for them to steal money from the victim through ransomware attacks that demand a wire transfer or other extortion.